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v NEW EXHIBITS University of Colorado Museum of Natural History
University of Colorado Museum of Natural History
Boulder, Colo.—“Ancient Southwest: Peoples, Pottery, and Place” features rarely exhibited ceramics from the museum’s celebrated Southwestern collection and takes visitors through more than 1,000 years of Southwestern history, from a.d. 500 to 1600. Photographs of ancient Southwestern ruins by noted photographer Adriel Heisey provide a visual and dramatic frame of reference for the exhibit, which is divided into seven areas representing the primary cultural groups that defined the ancient Southwest: Hohokam, Early Pueblo, Chaco, Mesa Verde, Mimbres, Casas Grandes, and Pueblo. (303) 493-6892, http://cumuseum.colorado.edu (Through February 14, 2014)
Ohio Historical Society
Columbus, Ohio—Explore more than 15,000 years of Ohio’s ancient Native American heritage through the exhibit “Following in Ancient Footsteps,” which features some of the society’s most significant artifacts, such as the Adena Pipe, the mica hand, and the Wray figurine, as well as many animal effigy pipes from Tremper Mound. Fiber optic lighting enhances the nearly 360- degree view of these, and other, unique and beautiful artifacts. Visitors can see what the ancient people used for special purposes as well as everyday activities. (614) 297-2300, www.ohiohistory.org/exhibits (Long-term exhibit)
New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum
Las Cruces, N.M.—The new exhibition “The Cañada Alamosa Project: 4,000 Years of Agricultural History” encourages visitors to explore artifacts, photography, oral history, and interpretation of life and survival in the Cañada Alamosa, a beautiful, isolated New Mexico canyon with pithouse and Pueblo ruins, Apache camps, and Euro-American homesteads. (575) 522-4100, www.nmfarmandranchmuseum.org (Through March 16, 2014)
smithsonian NMAI
Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian
Washington, D.C.—The new exhibit “Cerámica de los Ancestros: Central America’s Past Revealed” examines ceramic treasures from the museum’s collection to shed new light on the exchange of dynamic ideas about art, culture, politics, and technology within the region’s largely unknown civilizations. Including more than 160 objects spanning the period from 1000 b.c. to the present, the ceramics featured are augmented with significant examples of work in gold, jade, shell, and stone. Combined with recent archaeological discoveries, these objects help tell the stories of these dynamic cultures and their achievements. (202) 633-1000, http://americanindian.si.edu (Through February 1, 2015)
american archaeology
San Diego Museum of Man
San Diego, Calif.—More than a thousand years ago, the ancient Maya left behind evidence of a sophisticated and complex culture. Using cycles of the moon, sun, and planets, they were able to develop accurate calendar systems and used unique hieroglyphic writing to carve important dates, names of their rulers, and ceremonial events on stone monuments. The new exhibit “Maya: Heart of Sky, Heart of Earth” includes archaeological discoveries that highlight the creativity and beliefs of the ancient Maya. The huge Maya monuments, or stelae, on display are casts of the original monuments in Quirigua, a site in Guatemala. Today these casts, which are in better condition than the original monuments, are studied by researchers tracing the history of the Maya through their hieroglyphic writing. (619) 239-2001, www. museumofman.org/exhibits (New long-term exhibit)
Edge of the Cedars State Park Museum
North Blanding, Utah—The new photography exhibit “Upper Sand Island Rock Art: A Human Continuum” uses photographs of a rock art site on the San Juan River in Utah to render scale drawings of the images. The presentation shows the steps involved in that documentation process and the final results, after much editing. The Upper Sand Island site has ancient images of animals, anthropomorphs, and geometric and abstract figures extending for several hundred yards along the vertical sandstone cliffs. Given the difficult access, the site was not scientifically investigated until recently. (435) 678-2238, http://stateparks.utah.gov/ node/3091 (Through December 31, 2013)
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